Color

Lima, Ohio, Present Day III

Brittany jumped out of the car. She gazed up at her house and then back at Santana with a worried look.

"Hey, San?" She asked.

"Yeah?"

"We might get bullied." Brittany said quietly. Santana shrugged.

"I'll beat 'em up." She replied.

"We might get kicked off the Cheerios."

"Then Sue Sylvester can suck it. But I doubt she'll win nationals without us. We're the best, not to mention the hottest, on the team." Santana chuckled. But she was scared too. Brittany's parents were sitting on the porch and they made their way over to greet them. It wouldn't take long before they noticed the glances the two were giving each other, or the way they seemed to glow with love, or the rings. Santana closed her eyes. Oh god, the rings. Oh god, she might have to explain to her parents this. And at some point, the glee club members were going to figure it out.

"Damn that Kurt. He'll probably be the first. Stupid fashion obsessed monkey." She thought angrily. Brittany looked over at Santana.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, B. Never been better."

"Let's go." Brittany said, with an outstretched hand. Santana reached over and laced their fingers together. She took in a deep breath and marched forward, hand tucked away in Brittany's. There was no going back.

Santana exhaled deeply. Finally, finally this story was over. She looked down at her watch and realized they had been sitting there for nearly three and a half hours while she recounted the past 5 years that she remembered. Lima was the first stop on her way to the east coast again, this time she wanted to visit Janice, pick up Brittana on the way back and say hello to Katie and Trisha. Both families had visited her at least once while she was in her coma. Janice had visited once after she and the family went to Lima and found out from Brittany's parents what was going on. Katie and Trisha both phoned Santana's mother and found out. They visited twice as a couple and Trisha visited once alone. Strange, Santana thought when she had heard but she was glad anyway.

She looked at the two girls sitting across from her, silent with shock. They tried to process all of it at once and it looked like they were failing. Santana decided to take pity on them.

"Why don't we grab some lunch? Breadsticks? On me." She suggested. All the initial animosity had vanished. When she first saw Rachel and Quinn, she felt guilty and she had wanted to just run away and be done with it after they got angry at her for being away so long. But she was glad she had stuck around. She was glad that they heard her story.

"Santana... we had no idea." Rachel said as she got up. Santana dusted her trench coat off and shrugged.

"How could you? I didn't contact you for 5 years." Santana pointed out.

"Still."

"We're sorry." Quinn finished. The three of them looked at Brittany's grave. Santana would've been lying if she said there was no pain when she saw her name carved into the tombstone with the year of birth and the year of death. She'd be lying if she said she expected anything less. But the pain was significantly dulled and it came to her as if from a far away memory, like an old wound when the weather was humid. That wound, she knew, would never open again but would always be there to serve as a reminder of what she lost and some nights, she'd wake up and feel the pain. And when the pain went away, she'd go back to sleep, continue on with her life and do her best to live with it.

"San?" Rachel interrupted her thoughts.

"Oh, right." Santana said. The three of them walked through the graveyard, a cold wind picking up as they reached the fountain. Santana drew her coat around her tightly as she followed the two girls, women, she reminded herself. These were not the girls she left behind. While she matured, so did they. They looked back every now and again to make sure she was following.